1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to tissue dissectors and, more particularly, to percutaneously deployable tissue dissectors including an inflatable balloon at a distal end thereof configured to protect critical tissue structures.
2. Background of Related Art
During an electrosurgical procedure, e.g., a thermal ablation procedure, target tissue is heated to high temperatures, e.g., temperatures high enough to ablate tissue. Under certain surgical environments, it is sometimes necessary to protect critical tissue structures, e.g., organ, bone matter, etc. adjacent the target tissue from the heat associated with the thermal ablation procedure. To protect adjacent tissue, the adjacent tissue is typically dissected, covered, shielded or otherwise treated.
For example, one technique that is commonly utilized for protecting adjacent tissue structure during a thermal ablation procedure includes dissecting adjacent tissue by injecting a fluid, e.g., saline, CO2, D5W, etc., into a space between target tissue and the adjacent tissue. While this technique works well under certain surgical environments, this technique is limited, however, due to the difficulties in controlling the location of the fluid and difficulty in removing all the fluid from the body. In addition, and in the instance where the fluid is a gas, e.g., CO2, the CO2 often dissolves into the tissue, which requires the CO2 to be replenished (sometimes quite frequently) during a surgical procedure. As can be appreciated, having to replenish the CO2 during a surgical procedure may increase the length of time needed to effectively perform the surgical procedure.